Empathy, Altruism And Egoism

Register to read the introduction… 1981). Batson, Early and Salvarini, (1997, cited in Hogg & Vaughan, 2005) developed on this idea with their study that showed imagining how another feels produces empathy (leading to altruistic motivation), while actively imagining how you would feel produces both empathy and self-orientated distress (leading to mixture of altruistic and egotistic motivations). For example, if we help a drunk on the street because we understand how they feel, the behaviour is altruistic, but if we also imagine how we might feel, the behaviour is not ‘really’ altruistic. It therefore depends on the perspective of the person offering help, as to whether or not the behaviour is ‘really’ …show more content…
Two social norms particularly relevant to the motivation of helping behaviours are reciprocity and social responsibility (Berkowitz, 1972; Miller et al., 1990, cited in Passer & Smith 2001). As an example, a helping behaviour may be motivated by a desire for favourable treatment from another in the future (reciprocity), or they may feel a social obligation to help because they have learnt to help others in distress (social responsibility). As with the negative-state relief model, this theory suggests that helping behaviour is not motivated purely by the desire to benefit others, and as such is not ‘really’ altruistic. Reciprocity as a social norm should not be confused with ‘reciprocal altruism’ theory, which ultimately involves a reciprocal element even though the initial altruistic act was to one’s expense (Trivers, 1971, cited in Ashton, et al. …show more content…
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Passer, M. W., & Smith, R. E. (2007). Psychology: The Science of mind and behaviour. New York: